More photos, various angles and elevations. Nemo https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/stunning-satellite-images-of-beirut-blast-epicenter_08072020
I heard a theory that the cloud was actually dirt and that the explosion was under ground... Thoughts?
The cloud was a lot of dirt and other particulate matter. But the blast zone appears to be outward from a central point and leaving minimal blast hole. Were the main explosives underground I think there would be much more indication of it. Nemo should have 3 minute drone video of area https://twitter.com/Joyce_Karam/status/1291794752560664581
It was at least 120 tractor trailer loads by weight. The Oklahoma federal building had a crater 8’ deep by 30’ across and had 1/1150th of the material. I was going to write more and include math, but just search for “crater” here: https://www.wired.com/story/tragic-physics-deadly-explosion-beirut/
That's a very interesting read. I remember my FIL, a few decades ago, talking about using a concoction of ammonium nitrate and something else to "blow" leaning house chimneys back up to vertical. He said that if you did it right, it worked wonders. Reading the description of explosion types, shock waves and pressure waves, in that article, made me think of that. I'm sure my FIL would remember (if he didn't have dementia) the day when you could also buy dynamite at a hardware store (but you had to sign for it, or something). And I remember the day when a kid screwing around with black powder and cannon fuse, or detonating small pipe bombs in his own back yard wasn't automatically considered a terrorist. I think if you buy more than a few bags of fertilizer now, that you are probably put on some kind of watch list.
When I hear a "theory" (not really the right word, but we'll run with it), my first question is "okay, why?" Like "why is a secret bomb buried under the warehouse?"...? The thing I find funny about conspiracy theories, is that *just doing things the normal way* is usually pretty hard: I mean, just running a business (like a cafe, or print shop, or whatever), and juggling that with raising a family, and maybe a hobby or a couple of civic responsibilities... it doesn't usually leave tons of free time. So when you add "in secret" to that: "I am going to have a secret print shop!"... that just starts getting impossible. "Let's have a secret, global pedophile ring, and also put a secret bomb under a warehouse!"... ain't nobody got time for that. A cargo of explosives from an abandoned ship is seized, stored improperly, and just kind of falls through the bureaucratic cracks until a terrible accident occurs? Absolutely I can see that. People are too stupid and/or too busy to do the right thing: YES. "Hey, before you build that warehouse, let's put a bomb under it, because we're sneaky pedophile supervillains!": NO. Just Occam's razor, really. DH
Just like the Minuteman III launch silo set up inside the pentagon courtyard and south lawn of the the White House. Nemo
Well, okay, I *can* think of a reason to mine your warehouses. You have to consider it from the perspective of a group, currently in charge of a city or facility, but which considers the possibility of *losing* that authority (through invasion, or coup, or whatever) fairly likely: it's just a kind of "pre-set" scorched Earth strategy. So if your government is ousted, or an invading force occupies your city, or whatever, then *boom*, you can destroy valuable infrastructure and materiel from the safety of hiding/exile/etc. The big downside, of course, being that now you have *bombs* all over the place which could go off *accidentally*. Kind of like having concealed pit traps on your property: it's great until your grand daughter or dog stumbles into one. That said, I think this was just a storage failure. DH
and stupidity. Occam inspired him. I will admit its the first I have learned of it. And must agree Nemo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor